The Procession in Forlì in 1636 in Honor of the Madonna del Fuoco and the Crossroads of Knowledge. The Designer of the Decorations

Abstract

«A map with no figure and our woman in the middle» miraculously escaped the fire that had devastated the school-house of the master Lombardino da Ripetrosa in Forlì on the night between 4 and 5 February 1428. That night – as we are told by the painter and fifteenth-century chronicler Giovanni di Mastro Pedrino from Forlì, pseudonym of Giovanni Merlini – the master’s house burned down entirely, so that «non ne romaxe altro che le mura e una carta con alcuna figura e nostra Donna in mezzo. E perché parve grande miracolo fo tolta dai calonixe de Santa Croxe con reve(re)nçia: e questa fa assa(e) miraculi». We will illustrate the engravings by Floriano Dal Buono for the decorations that in 1637 accompanied Bezzi’s account on the procession of 1636 for the translation of the woodcut with the Madonna del Fuoco into the new chapel of the Forlì cathedral and we will propose Giovanni Battista Aleotti as a possible identification for their designer.